In the movie “A  Few Good Men” the effects of group discipline can be seen in the way which Colonel Jessep deals with his men. If one soldier is incapable of completing a task it is up to the men in that soldier’s squad to “take care” of him, so to speak. This means that the men of his squad take it up to themselves to discipline this soldier to make sure they keep up, complete the task, or do not step out of line again. However, in this situation the discipline was ordered by Colonel Jessep, making it a “Code Red” order, which is when a commanding officer orders men from a squad to teach a lesson to a soldier that has been shown to be a weak link, however this ends up causing the weak link to die because of the harsh punishment he received. The pros that can be seen from this treatment is that it will prevent that soldier from being the weak link or risk more of the same treatment. The cons of this treatment is that the soldier could feel threatened and start to reach out to higher forms of authority. The treatment could also not affect the soldiers performance or even push the soldier to not feel like they are worth, taking their own life to end the harassment. Lastly, the soldier could be punished to such an extreme that it causes their body to fail and they die. It can be seen here that in group discipline has more cons than pros which brings the question: why was it in effect? Although disciplinary action was what the military used to correct certain actions of soldiers, if looked at from another perspective this treatment is cruel and unjust. People do not deserve to be treated this way, even if they are in the military, it shows no morality and almost close to no humanity. Especially if it can be shown that this type of treatment can be harsh enough to kill a soldier.                                                                                                                                                            In this movie it can also be seen that the military thinks very highly of themselves, especially in the eyes of Colonel Nathan Jessep. This can be seen in the single line “You can’t handle the truth” by the Colonel himself (Jack Nicholson). There are somethings which the regular civilians should not know about the military to protect them from the harsh realities of war and training people to become killing machines, which usually involves harsh ways of dealing out punishment. The higher sense of authority which the military believes they can carry out any orders they want, no matter what the cost, because they believe that whatever they do it is beneficial to the protection of the United States and all the citizens. But does the treatment of one soldier who is punished to an extent  where they die, really protect America and her citizens? There is no reason behind, besides the Colonel’s reason that if a soldier is not tough enough, they will falter in battle which could affect the battle, then the war, then possibly our country. However, a soldier does not need to be punished to an extent where they die. There are somethings which the military should do and not tell us just for our own safety, but there are other actions which they perform which are not necessary. We have given the military too much control of themselves, which in turn makes them believe that they are higher over regular civilians. This makes them believe that they are also above the laws that apply to us. There needs to be another entity involved in the military in order to regulate them and make sure that they do not perform actions which they believe they can but in reality cannot perform. In this way we can check the military and make sure that at least we know that they are abiding by the rules.

Citation:

• Reiner, Rob, Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Bacon, James Marshall, J T. Walsh, Kiefer Sutherland, and Aaron Sorkin. A Few Good Men. Burbank, CA: Columbia TriStar Home Video, 1993.